A new UK opinion poll indicates heavy support for current Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn over his top challenger Owen Smith in the party’s leadership contest next September.
The
online survey conducted by Opinium Research shows Corbyn enjoys more
than twice the support of Labour Party backers with 54 percent favoring
him compared to Smith, who is favored by only 22 percent of party
supporters taking part in the poll, the Guardian reported Saturday.
This
is while nearly 20 percent of surveyed Labour Party backers said they
were yet undecided and four percent said they did not intend to
participate in the voting process.
The latest findings further
pointed to continued strong support for Corbyn at grassroots levels
despite weeks of bitter conflict between the leader and Labour lawmakers
at Westminster, a large majority of whom backed a vote of no
confidence following the EU referendum last month.

Labour Party MP and Corbyn’s top leadership challenger Owen Smith

Some54
percent of Labour supporters expressed approval of Corbyn’s leadership
after almost a year in the top position, while 24 percent said they
disapprove his performance. The remaining 22 percent had no fixed view
about his leadership.
Meanwhile, supporters of Smith, the former
shadow work and pension secretary, believed that he would gain more
support as he becomes better known in the run-up to the September 24
vote.
Labour signed up more than 183,000 new registered supporters
in 48 hours last week, all of whom will now be eligible to vote, after
paying the £25 fee imposed by the party’s national executive.
Corbyn
stated on Saturday that the party’s huge membership, which now
surpasses 500,000, would power it to victory at Britain’s next general
election in 2020 under his leadership.
Opinium conducted the
survey of 2,231 British adults from July 19 to 22. Results have been
weighted to nationally representative criteria.